Ken Cuccinelli exploring 30-minute ads

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial campaign is looking into the possibility of running highly unusual 30-minute television advertisements in the coming weeks, according to multiple media-tracking sources.

Cuccinelli’s team inquired about the cost of half-hour ad blocks for the month of September, Republican and Democratic sources said. The inquiries have been made in all of Virginia’s major television markets.

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Running an ad of that length would be an expensive undertaking that’s been attempted by only a few other candidates: Newt Gingrich produced a half-hour ad about energy during his 2012 campaign, and Barack Obama’s campaign aired a 30-minute film about the candidate in the waning days of the 2008 race.

But Cuccinelli already has taken steps in the past few days to shake up the dynamics of his campaign against former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who has been ahead in the most recent public polls.

Republicans believe the race remains competitive, though most acknowledge that Cuccinelli has lost some ground over the summer. His goal now: to move the focus of the race away from his own political baggage and put McAuliffe back on the defensive.

Cuccinelli announced Tuesday that he was donating $18,000 to charity — a sum representing the value of gifts he accepted from embattled Republican donor Jonnie Williams, the Star Scientific CEO embroiled in a political gift-giving investigation.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Cuccinelli camp blasted out a memo from LaCivita challenging the press to cover McAuliffe’s alleged ethical transgressions as aggressively as they have covered Cuccinelli’s connection to the Star affair.

“For all of Ken’s efforts to focus on the core issues of this race — jobs, education, energy and workforce development — he continues to experience a significantly disproportionate amount of negative media scrutiny about various matters,” LaCivita wrote. “Ken Cuccinelli is being punished for his willingness to engage in an open and honest dialogue while Terry McAuliffe is being rewarded for deceit and obfuscation.”